Anoke is 22 Months! [April 2, 2010]

Not yet 2, but getting close!

At 22 months Anoke weighs 30lbs and wears a size 3T (3 year old toddler) and size 7 shoe. He's the same size as his 2 year old friends in school. He stills has his baby fat, but he is growing and lengthening into boy...

At 22 months Anoke can read letters, make associations with letters (A is for Anoke, C is for Cat) and read a few three letter words. He's counting perfectly until 5 and then inconsistently until 10. His vocabulary is increasing daily, from the names of animals to present continuous action verbs: eating, walking, driving, jumping. He has a really good understanding of opposites ("up, up, up, down, down, down"; open and close; on and off; inside and outside). He's able to answer questions and express his preference: "orange, no! broccoli, yes!". He's able to ask for what he wants: pointing, saying the word, nodding his head, "yes!". He will tell you if he wants to be lifted up or put down, if he wants you to look at his trucks that he arranged and rearranged in an order on the table, bed, couch, chair, under the chair... He laughs and says, "funny". He says "no!" if he doesn't want a hug and runs up to you and says, "hug!" when he wants to give one freely. He is independent (refuses to be fed and enjoys eating by himself) and curious. Funny and focused (when he's really engagged in something, the rest of the world disappears for him). He has the most beautiful contagious laugh and the most heart wrenching cry (which only happens if he's hungry, or more commonly, tired).

Every night we read and listen to Good Night Moon and he anticipates the next words of the story repeating, "cow" and "moon" and "hush" before I turn the page.

He listens to and immedieately repeats what he hears. Because of this echoing, I'm making a conscious effort to always say, "Please!" and "Thank you!". I never swear in front, behind, under, over, next to, or across from of Anoke.

He still loves trucks (fire trucks, tow trucks, diggers, cement mixers, etc.) and trains, specifically, Thomas the Train. I let him watch half an hour of PBS on the weekends and he gets to dance and sing along with the Thomas the Train theme song. Elmo is another mass marketed character that Anoke is into, but not as much as trains and trucks. A walk down the street, two trucks later and Anoke is ecstatic, repeating, "Truck!", "Big Truck!".

Although he doesn't rush to the potty, he will tell me when he's just peed ("peepee") or pooed ("poopoo"). Diaper changes are no longer a guessing game.

I changed his crib into a toddler bed and the transition was very easy. It really blows my mind how big he's gotten. He fills up 3/4 the length of the bed. It won't be long until his little bed is too small.

He's running, climbing (with supervision, I should add...he thinks he's a '"big boy", but he he often misses his step!), hopping (with one foot), skipping, kicking and throwing balls with suprising force and precision (seriously, Anoke's got some innate skills!), spinning, dancing, doing his yoga moves (alligator, hot air balloon, iguana, etc.), and "coloring" and painting.

He's become more self-aware and demands to do many things himself. He can open and close and twist and snap almost anything with his ever-more-dextrous fingers. Gone are the days of spooning airplanes of pasta and broccoli and yogurt into his mouth. Anoke insists on doing it all himself! (I mistakenly taught Anoke to eat with his left hand — in Mommy-exhaustioin I just thought that my right was his right — but thankfully something good came out of it and Anoke is now ambidexterous.)"Mine" and "Anoke's" are common words he likes to say. I do what I can to encourage his independence, while still maintaining limits. If it's time to put on his shoes, I present two different pair so he can choose, which ones he wants to wear. He knows exactly what he wants and when he says, "No" or "Yes" and shakes his head side to side or up and down, he means it. "Yes" to green peas and "no" to carrots. It's a challenge when he's defiant about his vegetables. He used to eat everything I put on his plate, now he's developed very specific preferences. He'll have particular ideas about what he wants to get done — like lining up all of his trucks and trains in an order on the living room sofa or fitting all the pieces of his train set together. He'll also care about the results and will grab my hand or say, "look!" and lead me to the final product. He will clearly be pleased with himself and the praise he gets. And when things aren't successful, he's a harsh self-critic and will become loudly frusterated.

He's a happy, active, observant, empathetic (giving his friends hugs if they cry), curious, smart, beautiful toddler - both inside and out! (Regarding the "out", well, his eyes are stop-you-in-your-tracks blue and his long, black, curly lashes are the envy of all the girls and women alike. His hair is brown and blond, curly and straight. He has the widest, sunniest smile that can make any bad mood dissolve in an instant!). When he wants to he will freely shower me with hugs and kisses. That and more makes my heart want to burst into an entire new solar system. Anoke is my world, and I know he fills many hearts with his pure smile or contagious laugh.